Machinen Krieger "Fliege"

[Sticky Fingers]

There's a severe lack of Ma.K. or SF3D on the forum, so let's try and rectify that!
Here's my Fliege, a Lunar based suit operated by the Strahl National Defence Army. If you would like to read the complete backstory and timeline to the Machinen Krieger universe: here's a good place to start reading.

On to the build:
Here you can see the basics of any Ma.K. suit: a suit torso (the big objects at the top), arms, legs, a pilot's head (I milliput-ed this one, though there's one supplied with the kit) and torso, and a cockpit section/engine bay. The limbs are very articulated, each leg has 3 points of movement, as do the arms and there's a working 'pelvis', too.


Here's a close up of that interior:
cockpit side:

and engine room:

If you would leave the hatches open you could see most of it, but with this build there won't be much visible in the end. That's because I'm planning to put this in a small diorama.

When most of the building was done it was on to the painting. I made some primer by heavily diluting Humbrol matt 27 with Revell's Paintmix and airbrushed several layers of that toxic concoction. When that had fully cured I begun stippling on Vallejo paint. Yeah, stippling! It gives a delicate texture and as an added bonus leaves no brushmarks
This is the result after two stipple sessions:


After the whole suit was done like that I started to add some camo, again Vallejo, again with the above mentioned technique:


When that was dry I loaded the airbrush with some gloss clear and let rip. Earlier this evening the gloss coat was dry so here's where we catch up to where the suit is now: ID stripes have just been added free hand, for that "applied in the field" look.


Next is some paint touch up here and there, then it's on to the decals.

Hope you like, if not, I do

[Rheged]

Those wouldn't be canisters of T stoff und  C stoff  in the engine room, would they?

[kerick]

Makes me think of field applied winter white wash camo. These MaK have a lot of potential for improvisation/kitbashing, I have to try these soon!

[NARSES2]

When I first saw these things in a model shop in Croydon back in the 70's I was fascinated by them.

This looks like another cracking build coming from Mr Sticky 

[Sticky Fingers]

@ NARSES2: I think you're mistaken time wise, or it might have been another series altogether, because the first Ma.K. kits (or SF3D as it was called at that time) came out in Japan in 1984, and it took quite some time for them to be picked up by retailers in the west. Those first kits were from a company called Nitto. They can now be worth a lot of money. The Fliege that I'm building now is from another company, Wave, who now own the rights (and the moulds) to the original Nitto kits. So basically this kit is over 25 years old (but even back then, as now, these kits came with metal parts such as springs and wire and a cardboard camo-card and a decalsheet with enough decals for 3 or 4 versions). Wave also make some brand spanking new kits, and one of them, a "Snake Eye", is going to be added to the diorama.

Here's one I build from one of those original Nitto kits, 6 or 7 years ago, when they were slightly more affordable..

Straight out of the box, except for the weaponry. And some of the decals. And the camo is definitely not on the camo-card...

[Sticky Fingers]

Done! The damage that you can see is done on purpose as this suit will be the victim of an attack, as planned in the diorama mentioned earlier.

















The Fliege got tired of posing and tried to wonder off...


Quite happy with how the armoured suit turned out, even though there are some things that I would do different if I were to make this one again. The rubber sleeves around the joints, for instance, would be replaced by something a bit more cooperative.

[NARSES2]

Thanks Sticky. I've obviously got my dates wrong. I'm certain it was the Nitto ones I remember, they came with figures to place inside them as the operators. Mainly armed with panzerfausts and mg 42's type of things ? I swear they were in Tamiya style boxes though with preaty good artwork on the front of the box. A shop in Croydon which used to import a lot of lines from the Far East used to sell them. Never saw them elsewhere for years afterwards

[Sticky Fingers]

No MG42's as far as I know, but Panzerfaust most definitely. Souped-up Panzerfausts, even!
Here's a pic of an original Nitto kit:

source: scalemates.com

[NARSES2]

I'm going to have to do some digging to see if I can find any of the boxart I remember

[Army of One]

Great build there.....gonna have to take a looksee and see what I'm missing on one of the posted links.....

[pyro-manic]

Erk - I'm guessing the pilot isn't too well then?

Looking really good, and I can't wait to see the diorama.

[dumaniac]

nice - i like it

[tc2324]

How the hell was this not nominated for a whiffie?? 

Outstanding work Sticky.